The Internet has become a ubiquitous source of information and resources, allowing millions of people around the world to easily exchange information and communications. For example, web sites accessible over the Internet often provide a wide variety of information and content. By publishing content on a web site, authors can share their works with audiences around the world, while retailers can introduce their products to countless potential new customers. Internet users can also exchange electronic communications in the form of e-mail, instant messages and other types of messages. These communications are facilitated by communication servers, which are able to send and receive messages over the Internet.
Each device connected to the Internet must have at least one Internet protocol (IP) address. For example, a server hosting a web site or an Internet communication service must have an IP address. An example IP address is 12.10.38.33. An IP address is a unique number, similar in concept to a telephone number, used by devices to refer to each other when sending information through the Internet. This allows machines passing the information onwards on behalf of the sender to know the intended destination.
IP addresses, however, are difficult to remember and are not descriptive of the Internet locations to which they correspond. Accordingly, IP addresses may be associated with a domain name that may be used instead of an IP address to direct traffic to a network location. Domain names are much easier to remember and use than their corresponding IP addresses. For example, instead of using various IP addresses to refer to various locations in a company's network, the company may purchase the domain name “company.com.” In this case, the company's website may reside at www.company.com, while employees of the company may be given email addresses having this domain name (e.g., user@company.com).
In order to translate a domain name into its corresponding IP addresses, a Domain Name Service (“DNS”) must be utilized. The DNS includes a system of servers (referred to as DNS servers or name servers) that maintain a database for resolving domain names and IP addresses. For example, an attempt to access “www.company.com” may be directed by the DNS to the IP address 12.10.38.33. This conversion allows users to connect to remote computers by inputting domain names instead of IP addresses. Many types of information can be stored in a DNS record, and DNS provides physical locations (i.e., IP addresses) associated with various services in each domain name. Further, the DNS records may list the mail exchange servers and instant messaging servers for each domain. In sum, DNS facilitates access to information and services associated with a given domain name by providing the IP addresses of devices providing such domain services.
Domain names are often company trademarks, personal names or short phrases concatenated with an extension (e.g., .com, .net, org, .us, .biz, etc.). For example, businesses and other entities often obtain custom domain names incorporating their trademarks. Individuals may also obtain custom domains (e.g., johnsmith.com). To obtain ownership and control over an Internet domain name, users must interact with a registry accredited by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names & Numbers (ICANN). If a requested domain name is available, the user may purchase the name and may proceed, for example, in creating a web site or setting up domain e-mail.
As part of this domain set-up, the user must specify the IP addresses associated with the domain for publishing in the domain's DNS record. As previously mentioned, the DNS record lists IP addresses associated with various services offered by the domain. Alternately, the DNS record may list host names for the services. A DNS record may include a Mail eXchange record (also referred to as a MX record). The MX record maps a domain name to a list of mail exchange servers for that domain. Similarly, a DNS record may indicate a web server where web pages are hosted for a web browser (referred to as an A-Record), while a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) related-record may map to services such as instant messaging services for a domain. As known to those skilled in the art, SIP related DNS records may include SRV and NAPTR records. A DNS entry may also include a Text record where any arbitrary text may be placed. Importantly, the DNS record associated with a domain name, while accessible to the public, generally is only editable at the direction of the entity in control of the domain (e.g., the domain owner).
Though a domain owner may control the various IP addresses/host names listed in a DNS record, the owner need not control the devices residing at these addresses. For example, a domain owner may outsource the hosting of web pages within the domain. In this example, web-hosting services may be provided by a third party who owns a server connected to the Internet. The server may provide a web site having the domain name, and the domain's DNS record may point requests for this web site to the third party's server. By allowing a third party to host web pages for the domain, the domain owner need not incur the costs of server ownership, setup and initiation. Alternatively, the domain owner can shop for the best price/performance of web hosting from various providers and may then update the domain's DNS record to point to the server of a preferred provider.
While outsourcing of web-hosting services is well known in the art, a variety of difficulties currently exist for outsourcing of email hosting services. For example, email hosting services require creation and administration of user accounts. These actions may be burdensome even for a relatively small number of users. Also, given high set-up and maintenance fees, hosting services today may be too expensive for domain owners having limited resources and/or small numbers of users. Further, to initiate hosting services, a domain owner must often edit their DNS record. This DNS editing, however, is often confusing and difficult for domain owners who lack DNS expertise. Further, difficulties often arise in verifying ownership or control of a domain name, making it difficult to determine whether the entity requesting outsourcing is truly authorized to make such a request.